The digital age has hit us and made us depend on the internet for every problem, query or issue we face. The same goes for medical or health issues, with more and more people on the web we have seen a rise in the number of online symptom checkers.
Online symptom checkers are tools on the internet that estimate the probability of a disease depending upon the symptoms inserted by you.
Here is a list of free online symptom checkers that you could refer, when in doubt:
The specialty of Symcat lies in its database of nearly 500,000 patients, which allows you to estimate the probability of a disease based on the entered symptoms. After providing you with the possible illness, Symcat also schedules appointments for you and maps around urgent care centers in and around your location.
iTriage is an app and an online symptom checker; it is a step ahead from the regular online symptom checker. It allows the users to create an avatar for themselves, update their details regularly, maintain a record and add extensive symptoms to describe their condition. You can simply click on the part of your body from the avatar or pick from the symptoms list, present on the app if you are unsure about the exact symptoms.
AskMD is a little different from the everyday online symptom checkers; it is an app and a social network which allows patients to maintain a record of their health profile online. A drawback to Ask MD is that the users cannot access it on a desktop or pc and there also need to search for one symptom at a time, there is no list for them to choose from.
Symptify, an online symptom checker, claims that it helps the patients in “making better health decisions.” They have a list of common complaints by other patients that make it easier for you to enter their symptoms. You can also simply type the symptom instead of describing it in medical terms. In one of its unique features, Symptify allows you to send the predicted causes to the relevant medical provider so that they can prepare a set of questions before your arrival.
FamilyDoctor.org is a basic online symptom checker that gives you a set of predictions based on the symptoms entered by you. The only difference is that it gives out the symptoms in a flow chart rather than a visual representation. It does not allow you to create an avatar either, although it is beneficial for people who understand flowcharts.